You have been let down. Your right to abortion access in Virginia
is in jeopardy and no one bothered to tell you!

A year ago, Republicans in the Virginia Senate slipped in an amendment
to a seemingly harmless bill about nursing home facilities that required
that all abortion providers should be regulated like hospitals. To put
this a little more clearly: the majority white, male legislature of Virginia
ignored scientific evidence and decided to use a legal process to impose
their moral(?) standards on the bodies of Virginia's women.

What better way to do this than to wave their magical legislative power
wand and force a procedure twelve times safer than childbirth to be performed
in a ridiculously expensive and elaborate hospital setting?

Openly anti-choice Governor Bob McDonnell and Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli
both praised the newly passed regulations and themselves as protecting
the women of Virginia!! Over the last year, national women's rights organizations
did some lobbying, had a lot of meetings, wrote some letters to the editor,
and made a few phone calls. All the while, the women of Virginia were told
by the new anti-abortion leadership in Virginia that the new abortion regulations
were for their safety. AND THEY BELIEVED IT.

YOU HAVE BEEN MISLED AND LIED TO.

The original draft of abortion regulations proposed to the Board of Health
of Virginia was corrupted and manipulated by the office of the Attorney
General, Ken Cuccinelli.

Documents uncovered from a Freedom of Information Act request show that
the Board of Health gathered opinions and advice from a large panel of
respected and esteemed obstetrician/gynecologists throughout Virginia.
These professionals along with the Health Department proposed regulations
that would allow existing clinics in Virginia to be exempt from having
to implement very expensive and medically unnecessary architectural changes.

Ken Cuccinelli's office told the Department of Health to remove this exemption.

WHAT DOES THIS MEAN FOR ABORTION ACCESS IN VIRGINIA?

It is estimated that the structural changes required by the new regulations
will cost each clinic anywhere from a quarter of a million dollars to a
half million dollars. Some clinics have been safely performing abortions
in buildings that are IMPOSSIBLE to retrofit to meet the new requirements.
These new requirements masquerade as improvements to protect women's health,
but are just financial burdens, fabricated by those who object to abortion.

MANY OF THESE CLINICS WILL CLOSE BECAUSE OF LACK OF FUNDS.

The few surviving clinics, if any, will have big and unnecessary construction
bills to pay. This means drastically reduced access to abortion and much
higher prices for abortion services. Of course, the daughters of the wealthy
will be able to discreetly travel somewhere and have their needs met. What
about the women who are struggling to make ends meet?

WHERE IS THE OUTRAGE?

The large national pro-choice organizations that have promoted themselves
as the defenders of choice and women's rights are well aware of these challenges
and have chosen to say and do nothing. It seems they have decided that
the people of Virginia do not care to know of, or act in defense of their
own reproductive rights.
Without a powerful national machine and with non-profits staying silent,
independent clinics have been left in the cold with no big legal firms
and PR firms to assist in this slowly deteriorating situation.

When pushed to publicize the outrage that most independent clinics have
been feeling, national groups have said they don't want to be seen as "angry
feminists."

WELL, WE ARE DONE BEING LADYLIKE. WE ARE ANGRY AND WE ARE GOING
TO LET THE WHOLE COUNTRY KNOW IT.

WE HAVE DECIDED TO FIGHT BACK ON OUR OWN, WITH THE PEOPLE OF VIRGINIA.
A Capital Women's Health Clinic, Falls Church Healthcare Center, and other
independent clinics across the state are working at the grassroots level
to bring attention to this situation.

THE BOARD OF HEALTH IS NOW IN THE PROCESS OF WRITING THE PERMANENT REGULATIONS.
There is still time to attempt to influence the writing of the permanent
regulations. The Attorney General will undoubtedly be monitoring and manipulating
the writing of the permanent regulations, so we must bring NATIONWIDE ATTENTION
to this self-righteous ideologue's invasion into the private lives and
decisions of Virginia's families.

THERE MUST BE REPERCUSSIONS FOR SUCH BLATANT AND OVERT POLITICIZING OF
A SUPPOSEDLY LEGITIMATE REGULATION PROCESS.

Here is our action plan:

1. Tell everyone or anyone you know who cares about reproductive
rights about the perversion of the regulatory process going on in Virginia.
2. Write a letter to the Virginia Department of Health. Tell them
that abortions have been safely performed for the past 39 years without
the imposition of ridiculous and costly architectural changes. Remind them
of their obligation of ensuring the medical integrity of the regulations
that come out of their office and that they should not allow outside interference
from right wing ideologues such as Ken Cuccinelli.
3. Write to your favorite blogger or blogsite and tell them about
the attacks that the women of Virginia are currently enduring.
4. Create impromptu picket lines with signs across the state, telling
Ken Cuccinelli to back off and stay out of the permanent regulatory process.

We must expand our outreach immediately to radio, billboards, and TV.
Please send a donation to support this on the ground movement to protect
the rights of Virginia's families. Please make a donation of $25 or more
today to stop this madness NOW!

Help Save Virginia's Clinics

All funds collected are held separately and used to support the cause
described on this page. A Capital Women's Health is
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